The following resolutions were proposed to the Kentucky Legislature, and this version was adopted on
November 10, 1798, as a protest against the Alien and Sedition Acts passed
by Congress. They were authored by Thomas Jefferson, but he did not make
public the fact until years later. This represents one of the clearest expressions of his views on how the Constitution was supposed to be interpreted.

The Kentucky Resolutions of 1798

1. Resolved, That the several States composing, the United
States of America, are not united on the principle of unlimited submission
to their general government; but that, by a compact under the style and
title of a Constitution for the United States, and of amendments thereto,
they constituted a general government for special purposes —
delegated to that government certain definite powers, reserving, each
State to itself, the residuary mass of right to their own self-government;
and that whensoever the general government assumes undelegated powers, its
acts are unauthoritative, void, and of no force: that to this compact each
State acceded as a State, and is an integral part, its co-States forming,
as to itself, the other party: that the government created by this compact
was not made the exclusive or final judge of the extent of the powers
delegated to itself; since that would have made its discretion, and not
the Constitution, the measure of its powers; but that, as in all other
cases of compact among powers having no common judge, each party has an
equal right to judge for itself, as well of infractions as of the mode and
measure of redress.

2. Resolved, That the Constitution of the United States, having
delegated to Congress a power to punish treason, counterfeiting the
securities and current coin of the United States, piracies, and felonies
committed on the high seas, and offenses against the law of nations, and
no other crimes, whatsoever; and it being true as a general principle, and
one of the amendments to the Constitution having also declared, that “the
powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, not
prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively,
or to the people,” therefore the act of Congress, passed on the 14th
day of July, 1798, and intituled “An Act in addition to the act
intituled An Act for the punishment of certain crimes against the United
States,” as also the act passed by them on the — day of June,
1798, intituled “An Act to punish frauds committed on the bank of the
United States,” (and all their other acts which assume to create,
define, or punish crimes, other than those so enumerated in the
Constitution,) are altogether void, and of no force; and that the power to
create, define, and punish such other crimes is reserved, and, of right,
appertains solely and exclusively to the respective States, each within
its own territory.

3. Resolved, That it is true as a general principle, and is also
expressly declared by one of the amendments to the Constitutions, that “the
powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, our
prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively,
or to the people”; and that no power over the freedom of religion,
freedom of speech, or freedom of the press being delegated to the United
States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, all lawful
powers respecting the same did of right remain, and were reserved to the
States or the people: that thus was manifested their determination to
retain to themselves the right of judging how far the licentiousness of
speech and of the press may be abridged without lessening their useful
freedom, and how far those abuses which cannot be separated from their use
should be tolerated, rather than the use be destroyed. And thus also they
guarded against all abridgment by the United States of the freedom of
religious opinions and exercises, and retained to themselves the right of
protecting the same, as this State, by a law passed on the general demand
of its citizens, had already protected them from all human restraint or
interference. And that in addition to this general principle and express
declaration, another and more special provision has been made by one of
the amendments to the Constitution, which expressly declares, that “Congress
shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting
the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech or of the
press”: thereby guarding in the same sentence, and under the same
words, the freedom of religion, of speech, and of the press: insomuch,
that whatever violated either, throws down the sanctuary which covers the
others, arid that libels, falsehood, and defamation, equally with heresy
and false religion, are withheld from the cognizance of federal tribunals.
That, therefore, the act of Congress of the United States, passed on the
14th day of July, 1798, intituled “An Act in addition to the act
intituled An Act for the punishment of certain crimes against the United
States,” which does abridge the freedom of the press, is not law, but
is altogether void, and of no force.

4. Resolved, That alien friends are under the jurisdiction and
protection of the laws of the State wherein they are: that no power over
them has been delegated to the United States, nor prohibited to the
individual States, distinct from their power over citizens. And it being
true as a general principle, and one of the amendments to the Constitution
having also declared, that “the powers not delegated to the United
States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are
reserved to the States respectively, or to the people," the act of
the Congress of the United States, passed on the — day of July, 1798,
intituled “An Act concerning aliens,” which assumes powers over
alien friends, not delegated by the Constitution, is not law, but is
altogether void, and of no force.

5. Resolved. That in addition to the general principle, as well
as the express declaration, that powers not delegated are reserved,
another and more special provision, inserted in the Constitution from
abundant caution, has declared that “the migration or importation of
such persons as any of the States now existing shall think proper to
admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress prior to the year 1808”
that this commonwealth does admit the migration of alien friends,
described as the subject of the said act concerning aliens: that a
provision against prohibiting their migration, is a provision against all
acts equivalent thereto, or it would be nugatory: that to remove them when
migrated, is equivalent to a prohibition of their migration, and is,
therefore, contrary to the said provision of the Constitution, and void.

6. Resolved, That the imprisonment of a person under the
protection of the laws of this commonwealth, on his failure to obey the
simple order of the President to depart out of the United States, as is
undertaken by said act intituled “An Act concerning aliens” is
contrary to the Constitution, one amendment to which has provided that “no
person shalt be deprived of liberty without due progress of law”; and
that another having provided that “in all criminal prosecutions the
accused shall enjoy the right to public trial by an impartial jury, to be
informed of the nature and cause of the accusation, to be confronted with
the witnesses against him, to have compulsory process for obtaining
witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his
defense;” the same act, undertaking to authorize the President to
remove a person out of the United States, who is under the protection of
the law, on his own suspicion, without accusation, without jury, without
public trial, without confrontation of the witnesses against him, without
heating witnesses in his favor, without defense, without counsel, is
contrary to the provision also of the Constitution, is therefore not law,
but utterly void, and of no force: that transferring the power of judging
any person, who is under the protection of the laws from the courts, to
the President of the United States, as is undertaken by the same act
concerning aliens, is against the article of the Constitution which
provides that “the judicial power of the United States shall be
vested in courts, the judges of which shall hold their offices during good
behavior”; and that the said act is void for that reason also. And it
is further to be noted, that this transfer of judiciary power is to that
magistrate of the general government who already possesses all the
Executive, and a negative on all Legislative powers.

7. Resolved, That the construction applied by the General
Government (as is evidenced by sundry of their proceedings) to those parts
of the Constitution of the United States which delegate to Congress a
power “to lay and collect taxes, duties, imports, and excises, to pay
the debts, and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the
United States,” and “to make all laws which shall be necessary
and proper for carrying into execution, the powers vested by the
Constitution in the government of the United States, or in any department
or officer thereof,” goes to the destruction of all limits prescribed
to their powers by the Constitution: that words meant by the instrument to
be subsidiary only to the execution of limited powers, ought not to be so
construed as themselves to give unlimited powers, nor a part to be so
taken as to destroy the whole residue of that instrument: that the
proceedings of the General Government under color of these articles, will
be a fit and necessary subject of revisal and correction, at a time of
greater tranquillity, while those specified in the preceding resolutions
call for immediate redress.

8th. Resolved, That a committee of conference and correspondence
be appointed, who shall have in charge to communicate the preceding
resolutions to the Legislatures of the several States: to assure them that
this commonwealth continues in the same esteem of their friendship and
union which it has manifested from that moment at which a common danger
first suggested a common union: that it considers union, for specified
national purposes, and particularly to those specified in their late
federal compact, to be friendly, to the peace, happiness and prosperity of
all the States: that faithful to that compact, according to the plain
intent and meaning in which it was understood and acceded to by the
several parties, it is sincerely anxious for its preservation: that it
does also believe, that to take from the States all the powers of
self-government and transfer them to a general and consolidated
government, without regard to the special delegations and reservations
solemnly agreed to in that compact, is not for the peace, happiness or
prosperity of these States; and that therefore this commonwealth is
determined, as it doubts not its co-States are, to submit to undelegated,
and consequently unlimited powers in no man, or body of men on earth: that
in cases of an abuse of the delegated powers, the members of the general
government, being chosen by the people, a change by the people would be
the constitutional remedy; but, where powers are assumed which have not
been delegated, a nullification of the act is the rightful remedy: that
every State has a natural right in cases not within the compact, (casus
non fœderis) to nullify of their own authority all assumptions of
power by others within their limits: that without this right, they would
be under the dominion, absolute and unlimited, of whosoever might exercise
this right of judgment for them: that nevertheless, this commonwealth,
from motives of regard and respect for its co States, has wished to
communicate with them on the subject: that with them alone it is proper to
communicate, they alone being parties to the compact, and solely
authorized to judge in the last resort of the powers exercised under it,
Congress being not a party, but merely the creature of the compact, and
subject as to its assumptions of power to the final judgment of those by
whom, and for whose use itself and its powers were all created and
modified: that if the acts before specified should stand, these
conclusions would flow from them; that the general government may place
any act they think proper on the list of crimes and punish it themselves
whether enumerated or not enumerated by the constitution as cognizable by
them: that they may transfer its cognizance to the President, or any other
person, who may himself be the accuser, counsel, judge and jury, whose
suspicions may be the evidence, his order the sentence, his officer the
executioner, and his breast the sole record of the transaction: that a
very numerous and valuable description of the inhabitants of these States
being, by this precedent, reduced, as outlaws, to the absolute dominion of
one man, and the barrier of the Constitution thus swept away from us all,
no ramparts now remains against the passions and the powers of a majority
in Congress to protect from a like exportation, or other more grievous
punishment, the minority of the same body, the legislatures, judges,
governors and counsellors of the States, nor their other peaceable
inhabitants, who may venture to reclaim the constitutional rights and
liberties of the States and people, or who for other causes, good or bad,
may be obnoxious to the views, or marked by the suspicions of the
President, or be thought dangerous to his or their election, or other
interests, public or personal; that the friendless alien has indeed been
selected as the safest subject of a first experiment; but the citizen will
soon follow, or rather, has already followed, for already has a sedition
act marked him as its prey: that these and successive acts of the same
character, unless arrested at the threshold, necessarily drive these
States into revolution and blood and will furnish new calumnies against
republican government, and new pretexts for those who wish it to be
believed that man cannot be governed but by a rod of iron: that it would
be a dangerous delusion were a confidence in the men of our choice to
silence our fears for the safety of our rights: that confidence is
everywhere the parent of despotism — free government is founded in
jealousy, and not in confidence; it is jealousy and not confidence which
prescribes limited constitutions, to bind down those whom we are obliged
to trust with power: that our Constitution has accordingly fixed the
limits to which, and no further, our confidence may go; and let the honest
advocate of confidence read the Alien and Sedition acts, and say if the
Constitution has not been wise in fixing limits to the government it
created, and whether we should be wise in destroying those limits, Let him
say what the government is, if it be not a tyranny, which the men of our
choice have con erred on our President, and the President of our choice
has assented to, and accepted over the friendly stranger to whom the mild
spirit of our country and its law have pledged hospitality and protection:
that the men of our choice have more respected the bare suspicion of the
President, than the solid right of innocence, the claims of justification,
the sacred force of truth, and the forms and substance of law and justice.
In questions of powers, then, let no more be heard of confidence in man,
but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution. That
this commonwealth does therefore call on its co-States for an expression
of their sentiments on the acts concerning aliens and for the punishment
of certain crimes herein before specified, plainly declaring whether these
acts are or are not authorized by the federal compact. And it doubts not
that their sense will be so announced as to prove their attachment
unaltered to limited government, weather general or particular. And that
the rights and liberties of their co-States will be exposed to no dangers
by remaining embarked in a common bottom with their own. That they will
concur with this commonwealth in considering the said acts as so palpably
against the Constitution as to amount to an undisguised declaration that
that compact is not meant to be the measure of the powers of the General
Government, but that it will proceed in the exercise over these States, of
all powers whatsoever: that they will view this as seizing the rights of
the States, and consolidating them in the hands of the General Government,
with a power assumed to bind the States (not merely as the cases made
federal, casus fœderis but), in all cases whatsoever, by laws made,
not with their consent, but by others against their consent: that this
would be to surrender the form of government we have chosen, and live
under one deriving its powers from its own will, and not from our
authority; and that the co-States, recurring to their natural right in
cases not made federal, will concur in declaring these acts void, and of
no force, and will each take measures of its own for providing that
neither these acts, nor any others of the General Government not plainly
and intentionally authorized by the Constitution, shalt be exercised
within their respective territories.

9th. Resolved, That the said committee be authorized to
communicate by writing or personal conference, at any times or places
whatever, with any person or persons who may be appointed by any one or
more co-States to correspond or confer with them; and that they lay their
proceedings before the next session of Assembly.

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